Afternoon summary
Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, has said she will chair a meeting of the government’s Defending Democracy taskforce next week in response to the “alarming rise” in harassment, intimidation and abuse towards candidates and campaigners. (See 3.57pm.)
Lisa Nandy, the culture secretary, said this morning that the government wants “far more light, far less heat” in political debate in the UK. (See 9.50am.)
Ben Houchen, the Conservative Tees Valley mayor, has urged potential leadership candidates not to copy Reform UK. (See 1.49pm.) A major report into the views of people voting in the general election has backed this analysis, suggesting that adopting Reform UK policies would not attract enough voters for the Tories to win an election. (See 2.12pm.)
Updated
Corbyn and 4 other pro-Palestinian MPs urge Lammy to adopt new Gaza policy 'as matter of urgency'
Jeremy Corbyn, and the four other independent MPs pushing for Labour to be more pro-Palestinian, have written an open letter to David Lammy, the foreign secretary, demanding 11 steps “as a matter of urgency”.
They are demanding an assurance that the new Labour government will not carry on with the last government’s policy of objecting to the application by the chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Court for arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli PM, and Yoav Gallant, the Israeli defence minister, as well as Hamas leaders. It has been reported that the Labour will not withdraw the UK’s objection.
I have joined other independent MPs in writing to the Foreign Secretary, reminding him of the government's obligations under international law.
— Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) July 15, 2024
That involves dropping any legal challenge over the ICC's application for an arrest warrant of Israeli's PM Benjamin Netanyahu. pic.twitter.com/Fz4WyIXQTe
I have joined other independent MPs in writing to the Foreign Secretary, reminding him of the government’s obligations under international law.
That involves dropping any legal challenge over the ICC’s application for an arrest warrant of Israeli’s PM Benjamin Netanyahu.
Among other demands, the MPs also want the UK to resume funding Unrwa, the UN relief agency which lost support from some countries after some of its staff were accused of being involved in the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October.
During his visit to Israel today, Lammy told ITV that he would make an announcement about Unrwa to parliament shortly “in the appropriate way”. The government has said that it wants to abide by the convention that important announcements are made to parliament first.
Foreign Secretary David Lammy tells @emmamurphyitv he will make a statement to Parliament in the coming says on British funding to UNRWA
— ITV News Politics (@ITVNewsPolitics) July 15, 2024
Funding was cut in January after claims some staff had taken part in the October 7 attacks - but a review found no evidence of Hamas links pic.twitter.com/vKUEbmwkym
The Foreign Office has not responded to the report claiming Lammy will stick with the previous government’s stance on the ICC arrest warrant applications. In May, speaking in the Commons, he criticised the then government’s position, saying “Labour’s position is that the decision by the international criminal court chief prosecutor to apply for arrest warrants is an independent matter for the court and the prosecutor”.
The other four MPs who have signed the letter are: Adnan Hussain, Ayoub Khan, Iqbal Mohamed and Shockat Adam. They all defeated Labour candidates, in seats with many Muslim voters that Labour was expected to win, by campaigning primarily on Gaza. Corbyn, the former Labour leader, also won as an indepedent, but he was re-elected in a seat he has represented since 1983, and Gaza was probably not the main reason why he was successful.
Farage and Truss to attend US Republican national convention
Nigel Farage and Liz Truss are among the UK politicians set to attend the US Republican national convention this week, Ben Quinn reports.
In the comments some readers have been pointing out that the political news is a little thin today. You could argue that this is Keir Starmer keeping a promise. In his first speech as PM he said the government would “end the era of noisy performance [and] tread more lightly on your lives”.
This was not a casual remark. In his speech to the Labour conference last year he said “politics should tread lightly on people’s lives” and, when he elaborated on this in a speech in January, he said he wanted to make politics “less colourful”, with “fewer clicks on social media”.
That might be good for the country at large – but not so helpful to the news industry.
Yvette Cooper to chair meeting of taskforce to considering 'alarming rise' in candidate intimidation
Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, has said she will chair a meeting of the government’s Defending Democracy taskforce next week in response to the “alarming rise” in harassment, intimidation and abuse towards candidates and campaigners.
In a statement, Cooper said:
Political violence, intimidation and harassment have no place in our democracy.
The recent general election campaign demonstrated some of the great strengths of our democratic traditions, including a smooth and peaceful transition of power from one party to another, but during this campaign we also saw an alarming rise in intimidation, harassment and abuse towards candidates, campaigners and volunteers from all parties which simply cannot be tolerated. Some of those incidents are now being investigated by the police.
In our democracy we must be able to passionately debate and disagree on issues without ever resorting to intimidating tactics designed to silence voices, suppress votes or prevent free and full participation in our democratic processes.
The disgraceful scenes we saw in some areas during this election campaign must not be repeated. That’s why I am convening and chairing a meeting of the Defending Democracy taskforce next week to make sure public safety, security and standards in our democracy can be upheld.
Cooper said she also intended to speak to MPs and candidates about the aggression they experienced while campaigning.
The Defending Democracy taskforce was set up in 2022 when the Conservatives were in office. At the time its main focus was on preventing foreign interference in elections and the democratic process.
Updated
David Lammy, the foreign secretary, today visited Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial centre in Jerusalem. According to a news release about his visit issued by Yad Vashem, Lammy laid a wreath in the Hall of Remembrance and wrote a message in the guest book. It said:
It’s one of the great honors of my life to visit the Yad Vashem as the UK foreign secretary, particularly because in the UK parliament I represent the historic area of Stamford Hill in North London, one of the historic homes of the Jewish community in London- escaping a series of problems in the 19th century and, of course the Holocaust. We honor all that were murdered and we remember the evils of genocide in that period of history.
Donations to Labour in final week of election campaign worth more than twice as much as donations to Tories, figures show
Labour received more than twice as much in donations as the Conservatives in the final week of the general election campaign, PA Media reports. PA says:
Labour raised £465,600 in private donations in the last week before polling day, bringing its total raised for the whole election to £9.5m, new figures from the Electoral Commission show.
The Conservatives raised just £225,587 in private donations over the same period, bringing their total for the whole election to £1.8m.
Figures released today show former professional poker player Derek Webb donated £250,000 to Labour in the final week while trade unions GMB and the Fire Brigades Union each gave £100,000.
The largest donation to the Conservatives was £50,000 from Westminster Development Services, a property company set up by a consortium led by the Hinduja family.
Two women have been arrested after staging a protest against the government’s Gaza policy at the Cenotaph in central London, PA Media reports. The women, from the protest group Youth Demand, put flowers and a Palestinian flag in front of the Cenotaph before spray-painting “180,000 killed” on the pavement in front of the memorial.
The Metropolitan police said the two women had been “quickly” arrested on suspicion of criminal damage “caused to the road and not the Cenotaph”.
In a post on X with a video of the two protesters, Youth Demand said:
Never again means never again. Everything that the cenotaph stands for is contrary to the Labour government allowing companies to profit from genocide.
Al Carns, the veterans minister, condemned the protest in his own message on social media.
The Cenotaph is special for all of us!
— Al Carns (@AlistairCarns) July 15, 2024
“The act of vandalism is abhorrent. No matter what is happening in the world, the Cenotaph must be respected. It stands in memory of those who made the ultimate sacrifice to protect the freedoms we enjoy today.”
The Cenotaph is special for all of us!
“The act of vandalism is abhorrent. No matter what is happening in the world, the Cenotaph must be respected. It stands in memory of those who made the ultimate sacrifice to protect the freedoms we enjoy today.”
The “180,000 dead” claim is a reference to a letter published recently by the Lancet arguing that, if 38,000 people have been directly killed in Gaza as a result of the war, experience from other conflicts suggests that, if indirect deaths are included, “it is not implausible to estimate” that 186,000 people have been killed. Mona Chalabi assessed that claim for the Guardian here.
The More in Common report published today (see 1.49pm) supports the Ben Houchen argument (see 1.49pm) that it would be a mistake for the Tories to chase Reform UK voters. It says:
The Conservatives should resist the temptation to simply try to outflank Reform UK on the right, as the number of Reform voters willing to return to the Conservatives will not be enough to form a majority, while aping the politics of Nigel Farage is likely to cost the Party further votes in the centre.
Less than a third (31 per cent) of those who voted for Reform UK say they might otherwise have voted Conservative. The remaining two-thirds say they would have backed other parties – including almost as many who say they would have backed some combination of Labour, the Liberal Democrats or Greens. Others would not have voted at all. Taken together this implies that in the absence of Reform standing the Conservative’s would still have ended up with well under 200 seats in this election.
What’s more, those who abandoned the Conservative party for Reform UK are the most likely to say that they would never vote Conservative again of all those who voted switched from the Conservative party at this election.
If the Conservative party is to recover it will have to start with restoring its reputation for economic competence and selecting a leader who can bring back voters who deserted the party to the left and the right. Rather than either or, voters who would back the Conservatives suggest a preference for a leader who can merge the appeal of both David Cameron and Boris Johnson.
And this is from More in Common’s Luke Tryl, with a chart showing that former Conservative voters who voted Reform UK at the election are more likely to say they would never vote for the Tories again than former Conservative voters who backed Labour or the Liberal Democrats this time.
Reform UK voters are the most likely to say they will never vote Conservative again & just over 3 in 10 would have considered doing so this time, taken together our analysis suggests a pure reunite the right strategy might have got the Conservatives to 1997 seat levels, not more pic.twitter.com/cRoLWGaSf1
— Luke Tryl (@LukeTryl) July 15, 2024
Wes Streeting defends puberty blocker ban decision after Labour criticism
Wes Streeting has defended his decision to make permanent a ban on puberty blockers being prescribed to children for gender-based reasons after the move was criticised by a series of Labour MPs, Peter Walker reports.
Tory leadership candidates should pledge 'to reject simplisitic politics of Reform UK', says Tees Valley mayor Ben Houchen
Ben Houchen, the Conservative Tees Valley mayor, who after the general election is probably the most powerful Tory in the country in terms of being able to take executive decisions, has urged potential leadership candidates not to copy Reform UK.
In an article for the ConservativeHome website, in which he also advises candidates to look to the future in the leadership contest and to avoid ‘blue on blue’ attacks, he says they should:
Publicly pledge to reject the simplistic and shallow politics of Reform UK and commit to building a Conservative party rooted in core conservative values. Additionally, pledge not to form any electoral pact with Reform.
Houchen says the Conservatives lost the general election not because they were not sufficiently rightwing but because they were seen as not sufficiently competent. He goes on:
A campaign that descends into chaos or infighting risks not only our internal unity but also our public image, extending our time in opposition. By contrast, a dignified, positive leadership contest will rebuild our credibility and appeal to the broader electorate, showing them that we are prepared to lead with integrity and foresight.
What I have seen from the three elections I have fought and won in Teesside is that most voters are not wedded to a political colour, and they are certainly not versed in the historic ideological debates of the Conservative party. They are hardworking pragmatists, who simply ask that their leaders are competent, attached to reality, and are able to deliver tangible things that improve their day to day lives.
At the Downing Street lobby briefing this morning the PM’s spokesperson declined to be drawn on whether Gareth Southgate deserved a knighthood after leading England to the final of Euro 2024.
Asked whether Keir Starmer had spoken to Southgate, the spokesperson replied:
I don’t know if he had a word with the England manager, but as he said in his letter to the team yesterday, the whole country is proud of what the team have delivered and getting to a second consecutive European Championship final is quite a feat.
Gareth and the team have brought us some great moments to remember over the last few weeks.
As PA Media reports, asked if the prime minister thought Southgate deserved a knighthood, the spokesperson replied: “He has provided great leadership, he has done the country proud, but I wouldn’t get into commentary around honours.”
Success of Labour government will be judged by how it does cutting NHS waiting lists and cost of living, polling suggests
More in Common, the group that campaigns to reduce polarisation in politics, published a good slideshow presentation last week, based on polling it carried out, giving an analysis of the general election results. It has followed that up today with the publication of a 129-page report on the election, based on the same polling and on what it learned from focus groups.
One of the main interesting points it makes is that the government will be judged, above all, on whether it can bring down NHS waiting lists and the cost of living, polling suggests. The report says:
How does the public plan to judge the government on its delivery of change and what benchmarks will they use to evaluate progress?
First and foremost, the public will look to NHS waiting lists and the cost of living to judge Labour’s success or failure. These are top performance indicators for every segment, with the elderly tending to be more concerned than average about waiting lists and younger generations more so about the cost of living. As inflation falls and interest rates seem set for a summer cut, waiting lists are arguably the new government’s key challenge in maintaining public support.
At a briefing on the report this morning, Luke Tryl, executive director of More In Common, said that with no “ideological anchor” uniting Labour’s coalition, delivery was key to Labour remaining in power.
Tryl has posted more highlights from the report on a thread on X starting here.
🧵 10 highlights from our new 10,000 person @Moreincommon_ study with @UCLPolicyLab 1) Keir Starmer may only have won a third of the vote but the public overwhelmingly believe he has a mandate to change Britain, with even majorities of Tory & Reform voters agreeing. pic.twitter.com/uDHUr6D0V1
— Luke Tryl (@LukeTryl) July 15, 2024
Campaigners urge Starmer to fix 'broken' settlement scheme for EU nationals living in UK
Keir Starmer must take “quick steps” to fix the “broken” Home Office settlement scheme for EU citizens in the country before Brexit to avert a repeat of the Windrush scandal, campaigners have said.
Grassroots organisation the3million and 75 other organisations, including highly respected immigration law firms, civil rights groups and NGOs, have written to the prime minister to seek a wholesale review the Home Office’s implementation of the Brexit withdrawal agreement (WA).
It was supposed to guarantee EU citizens rights but has already ended up with a government defeat in the high court.
Andreea Dumitrache, communications manager at the3million, said:
If the prime minister is serious about repairing the relationship between the UK and the EU, then he has a golden opportunity to do so, by taking quick steps to fix the EU settlement scheme. We believe this would be a significant show of goodwill towards the EU, relieving tensions and opening the door towards a better relationship with a close ally.
The letter calls for efforts to clear the 137,000 backlog of EU citizens still waiting for a decision on their status by the Home Office. Among other proposals, it also says the government should abandon the Home Office’s decision to “expire” UK residence cards held by some EU citizens on 31 December.
The letter says:
We are recommending tangible steps that you can take as a new government to fix the broken immigration system, so people can access their rights and justice, find belonging in the UK, and continue to play their part in our economy and society.
David Lammy met families of hostages murdered or held in Gaza by Hamas on his visit to the Middle East, PA Media reports. PA says:
The foreign secretary used his trip to call for an immediate ceasefire, including the release of all hostages and a rapid increase of aid into Gaza.
In Israel, he “spoke with families whose loved ones were murdered and taken hostage by Hamas”, the Foreign Office said today.
Photos shared on social media showed him embracing and shaking hands with those affected.
In meetings with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Mohammad Mustafa, prime minister of the Palestinian Authority, on Sunday, Lammy also made the case for working towards a two-state solution to the conflict.
He announced that the UK will provide another £5.5m this year to UK-Med to fund its work in Gaza. The medical aid charity sends experienced humanitarian medics, including those working in the NHS, to crisis-hit regions. The funding will be used to support the ongoing work of its field hospitals and the emergency department at Nasser hospital.
Lammy said: “The death and destruction in Gaza is intolerable. This war must end now, with an immediate ceasefire, complied with by both sides. The fighting has got to stop, the hostages still cruelly detained by Hamas terrorists need to be released immediately, and aid must be allowed in to reach the people of Gaza without restrictions.
“I am meeting with Israeli and Palestinian leaders to stress the UK’s ambition and commitment to play its full diplomatic role in securing a ceasefire deal and creating the space for a credible and irreversible pathway towards a two-state solution.
“The world needs a safe and secure Israel alongside a viable and sovereign Palestinian state. Central to this is to see an end to expanding illegal Israeli settlements and rising settler violence in the West Bank.
“Here, in what should be a crucial part of a Palestinian state, alongside Gaza and East Jerusalem, we need to see a reformed and empowered Palestinian Authority.”
In Israel, Foreign Secretary @DavidLammy spoke with families whose loved ones were murdered and taken hostage by Hamas.
— Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (@FCDOGovUK) July 15, 2024
The UK continues to push for the immediate release of all hostages. pic.twitter.com/1bLezKjMXc
'Strong UK-EU alliance is vital', says EU relations minister Nick Thomas-Symonds ahead of meeting in Brussels
Nick Thomas-Symonds, the minister for EU relations, has said that having “a strong UK-EU alliance is vital”.
In a statement issued ahead of his meeting in Brussels today with Maroš Šefčovič, the European Commission vice-president who leads for the EU on Brexit negotiations with Britain, Thomas-Symonds said:
Our government is committed to resetting the relationship with the European Union, to strengthen ties, reinforce our security and tackle barriers to trade.
The EU and Member States are among the UK’s closest friends and allies. With war in Europe, and shared global challenges, in areas such as climate change and illegal migration, a strong UK-EU alliance is vital.
Travelling to Brussels today for discussions with @MarosSefcovic at @EU_Commission as we reset the 🇬🇧🤝🇪🇺 relationship. pic.twitter.com/D4kHnjwHmt
— Nick Thomas-Symonds (@NickTorfaen) July 15, 2024
A reader asks:
How many bills does a monarch’s speech typically contain?
It depends. There is no set number, but normally it mentions around 25 to 30 full bills, and then a handful more bills to be published in draft over the next 12 months. Last year’s king’s speech contained 21 bills, the lowest number for almost a decade, but the government did not expect to get through a full session ahead of the election. In May 2022 the queen’s speech contained 38 bills.
But, as the parliamentary session goes on, governments almost always find themselves introducing new bills not in the queen’s or king’s speech, and so it is never a comprehensive guide to what is coming up.
At the weekend No 10 said the government was “working on more than 35 bills to deliver an ambitious parliamentary session that will be built on a bedrock of economic security, to enable growth that will improve the prosperity of our country and the living standards of working people”.
The Guardian has published a leader this morning saying the king’s speech should include a commitment to abolish the two-child benefit cap. (See 11.02am.) Here is an extract.
Sir Keir Starmer wants to end child poverty. One of his defining five missions is to “break down barriers to opportunity … to make sure there is no class ceiling on the ambitions of young people in Britain”. And last year he pledged his government would be “laser-focused on poverty”.
Fine words, and this week gives the chance to prove them. Amid the proposed laws in this government’s first king’s speech should be one that scraps the two-child cap on benefits. It impoverishes children, penalises ethnic minorities and humiliates women who have been raped. Unfair and morally repugnant, it is “the worst social security policy ever”, say academic experts. And government ministers know this.
The policy was dreamed up by George Osborne as chancellor, argued for by David Cameron as prime minister and finally launched by Theresa May and Philip Hammond in 2017. Under the cap, families on benefit receive a payment for each of their first two children from child tax credit or universal credit, but no more for any additional offspring. Larger families lose out on £3,455 a year for each child – a huge sum, especially for those on low incomes.
And here is the article in full.
Starmer faces test of Labour discipline after SNP proposes vote on ending two-child benefit cap in king's speech debate
Keir Starmer faces a possible test to his authority in the Commons next week after the SNP said that it would table an amendment to the king’s speech saying the two-child benefit cap should be abolished.
In a letter to the Scottish Labour leader, Anas Sarwar, the SNP’s leader at Westminster, Stephen Flynn, said that “the moment Keir Starmer stepped into Downing Street, the Tory two-child cap became the Labour party two-child cap”.
Flynn said Sarwar should instruct Scottish Labour MP to back the SNP amendment. In a statement he said:
The two-child cap is pushing thousands of Scottish children into poverty – and scrapping it is the bare minimum the Labour party government must do if it is serious about tackling poverty.
I urge Keir Starmer to include it in his programme for government this week but, if he fails, the SNP will lay an amendment to abolish it immediately. It is shameful and it must go now.
Labour MPs opposed the two-child benefit cap when it was proposed by the Conservative chancellor George Osborne, and many of them have harshly condemned it because it is a major cause of child poverty.
But Keir Starmer has repeatedly refused to commit to getting rid of the policy, which the Resolution Foundation says would cost £2.5bn, saying that he will only commit to policies he is able to fund. In the run-up to the election this stance became emblematic of his determination to show that he put fiscal responsibility ahead of heeding to the concerns of leftwingers.
But it is not just leftwingers who have opposed the two-child benefit cap. Earlier this year the rightwing Tory former home secretary Suella Braverman said it should go.
Starmer has a working majority of 180, according to the House of Commons website, and there is no chance of his losing a vote on the king’s speech. Even if the SNP amendment were to pass, it would not have legislative force. But the SNP clearly intends to use any vote as a campaigning mechanism, forcing Labour MPs unwilling to rebel to vote against an amendment many or most of them may privately favour.
It is for the speaker, Lindsay Hoyle, to decide what amendments get put to a vote. The SNP are now the fourth largest party in the Commons, not the third largest, and they only have nine MPs, and that will make it harder for them to get amendments selected than in the last parliament. But the speaker normally selects several opposition amendments when MPs vote on the king’s speech, and in autumn last year an amendment from the fourth party (then the Liberal Democrats) was selected, and so there is a good chance the Flynn amendment will be put to a vote.
MPs will start debating the king’s speech on Wednesday, and they will vote on it next week.
As Patrick Butler and Aletha Adu reported last week, the latest figures show that a record 1.6 million children are living in families affected by the two-child benefit cap.
Updated
In her interview with Times Radio this morning, Lisa Nandy, the culture secretary, more or less confirmed that a football governance bill will be in the king’s speech on Wednesday. Asked if Labour would bring back the bill, which was introduced by the last government earlier this year but dropped when the election was called, Nandy replied:
It will be a top priority for me, so I think you can read into that that there’ll be early action from this government.
I’m very keen that it becomes an issue that we take party politics out of and that we get behind the fans, we get behind grassroots football, and we get behind kids in this country who deserve the right standards.
Ministers are not supposed to say in advance what will be in the king’s speech because that is deemed a discourtesy to Buckingham Palace, but that never stops the government letting the media find out most of what it will contain. Eleni Courea wrote a good guide at the end of last week.
The football governance bill, which had cross-party support when introduced by the Tories, will set up an independent football regulator to promote teams’ financial sustainability.
Government wants 'far more light, far less heat' in political debate in UK, Lisa Nandy says
Lisa Nandy, the culture secretary, said this morning that the government wants “far more light, far less heat” in political debate in the UK. Expanding on what she said on Sky News (see 9.36am), she told ITV’s Good Morning Britain:
We had the independence referendum in Scotland, we had endless rows about Brexit that became very polarising across the whole of the UK and particularly in England, we found all these different ways to divide ourselves from one another, and I reflected on it a few years ago, standing in a debate in the House of Commons, where I was hearing remain-supporting and leave-supporting MPs hurling insults at each other across the floor, calling each other traitors.
It’s no surprise then that, when we walk out on to the streets of Britain, we hear that language reflected back to us, and that’s why I was so pleased that the prime minister, his first instinct [yesterday, after the attempt to kill Donald Trump] was to get on the phone to President Trump to express our utter condemnation.
Our interest, as the new government, is firmly in taking some of the heat out of this very toxic political debate that we’ve had, shedding far more light, far less heat, and showing leadership in the way that we conduct ourselves towards each other, but particularly towards political opponents that we disagree with.
Updated
Rishi Sunak should stay as Tory leader until November, says senior Tory
Good morning. This is one of those days when the main focus of the news industry is definitely not on Westminster but on the US, where people are still trying to assess the consequences of the attempted assassination of Donald Trump. But the shooting at the Trump rally may have an impact on the UK, partly because it may affect who wins the presidential election in November but also because it has revived interest in what can be done to reduce the polarisation, aggression and violence that has marred politics on both sides of the Atlantic in recent years.
Last week Lisa Nandy, the culture secretary, said that new Labour government wanted to end the era of culture wars. This morning she has been on the media, in interviews that were lined up when it was expected that the football would be the top story of the day, and, in the light of the attempt to kill Trump, her call for a calmer form of political debate has added resonance. As Peter Walker reports, she had a vivid way of expressing this on Sky News where she said:
When kids were turning on their TV sets last night across England, every single one of them will have been able to see themselves reflected in that team. And in doing so he’s told an inclusive story about the country that we can be.
It has felt very difficult for people to feel part of our national story, and it’s firmly my intention that this government will be different, will be far more Gareth Southgate, and far less Michael Gove.
The era of division needs to end, and I think this team and Gareth Southgate in particular has shown the leadership that we need in some really difficult times for this country. So we owe him an enormous debt, whatever he decides to do in the future.
Peter has the full story here.
America is not the only body with a leadership contest in the autum. The Conservatives have to find someone to replace Rishi Sunak, and later this week we are expecting to get some details from the party as to what the timetable for the contest will be. Sunak himself has said he will stay in place as leader until the process is under way, but he has not committed to remaining until his replacement as been elected and there has been talk of an interim leader standing in if the election continues until the party conference in October, or beyond.
This morning a senior Tory said Sunak should stay until the new leader has been elected. Andrew Mitchell, the shadow foreign secretary, said that, although he thought Sunak’s instinct was “almost certainly to go”, he thought he should stay on. He told Times Radio:
An interim leader is not, in my view, the best option. The best option is to seek to persuade Rishi to remain. It’s not an enormously long time in the scope of things. It’s probably till mid to end November …
I think his instinct is almost certainly to go. I hope that he won’t. I hope he will stay till November for the reasons that I have described. And at the 1922 Committee meeting last week, there was a widespread feeling of sympathy and respect for Rishi Sunak. And I’m sure that if he does stay, that will be the overwhelming feeling of the party.
Mitchell said the party should hold the leadership election after the party conference, as it did in 2005. He explained:
I think we should play it long. I think the example of Michael Howard in 2005 is a good example, allow members of the Conservative party, the country, to see what is on offer from the talented group of people who will no doubt put their names forward …
I very much hope that what the party will decide to do is to mirror what Michael Howard did in 2005 and allow the party conference the space for candidates who are offering themselves to say what they would do for their party, say what they would do for their country, and that members of the party, members of parliament, can then take a view as a result of that showcasing.
The House of Commons is not sitting today, and there is not much in the diary for the day. But we are getting a lobby briefing from Downing Street at 11.30am, David Lammy, the foreign secretary, is in Israel where he has a meeting with the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and Nick Thomas-Symonds, the minister for EU relations, is in Brussels for a meeting with his EU counterpart, Maroš Šefčovič.
If you want to contact me, please post a message below the line (BTL) or message me on X (Twitter). I can’t read all the messages BTL, but if you put “Andrew” in a message aimed at me, I am more likely to see it because I search for posts containing that word. If you want to flag something up urgently, it is best to use X; I’ll see something addressed to @AndrewSparrow very quickly. I find it very helpful when readers point out mistakes, even minor typos (no error is too small to correct). And I find your questions very interesting too. I can’t promise to reply to them all, but I will try to reply to as many as I can, either BTL or sometimes in the blog.
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